Birthday song band’s sadness at passing
News of Captain Sir Tom Moore’s death was a blow to a Perth band which recorded a song in honour of his 100th birthday on April 30 last year.
The champion fundraiser, a World War II veteran and national treasure, sadly passed away on Tuesday, February 2 after contacting COVID-19.
The Queen was among those to paid tribute to the army officer who was knighted by her after inspiring the UK to give millions of pounds to help the NHS.
And in Perth, there was a special connection formed with the retired soldier out of a burst of lockdown creativity.
Callum Campbell, vocalist and guitarist with Americana/country band Longstay helped to put together a home-recorded, distanced interpretation of David
Bowie’s hit, Space Odyssey.
The re-worked lyrics “NHS to Captain Tom...” gave a friendly salute to the old soldier who had walked 100 laps of his garden to raise over £38 million for NHS charities.
The Longstay musicians - who formed their popular band in 2013 - produced a digitally mastered sound track and a video uniting three of the five band members in a slickly edited montage.
The band cut a CD and sent it to him, but among the 100,000 cards that Captain Tom received for his big birthday, their gesture was one of too many to mention and they never heard back.
Callum said he was really sad to hear that Longstay’s hero had died: “Captain Sir Tom was an incredible man and it was an honour to be able to do something for him when he turned 100.
“The song that we recorded was a great project for us during the first lockdown and we hope it brought him pleasure too. “He was a real inspiration to people of all ages in the country and we were very sad to hear of his passing.”